Best Nadir Ever

So far, so good. Ian finished up another round of chemo Monday and is currently at the nadir - the lowest point where the all the effects of the chemo like low energy and blood counts really kick in. Yesterday, Ian spontaneously proclaimed "Best nader EVER!" (perhaps in reference to our children's spontaneous outbursts upon discovering they will get ice cream or a play date "this is the best day EVER!!!"). He has been a bit tired the last few days, but overall he's sailed through this one so far.  He is still pursuing art with a goal of "a little bit every day".  Here are a couple sketches of Asha from last week that I adore: 

Ian also had a second DLI (Donor Lymphosyte Infusion) Wednesday, which went smooth other than the quite pungent, lingering odor of canned creamed corn in our car and home. Apparently they preserve his brother's T cells in the same potion that they preserve corn. It is eliminated over a number of days through the breath - they actually dispense breath mints at the infusion. Ian experiences it as more of a "ketchup/tomato soup" smell/taste, but it is full power midwestern canned creamed corn to me. One of those very strange and unexpected side effects...

I have been doing really well through this round.  I even canceled our meal registry because we are doing so well.  We have hit that level of "new normal" where I don't feel like I'm performing surgery every time I cook for Ian or do his laundry. With the awareness that we are in this for the long haul,  I have also been putting extra energy into taking care of myself. Since Ian is a morning person, he has weekday breakfast duty for the girls so I can get some quiet time, exercise, and catch my breath before the school day begins. This has been a wonderful, much needed infusion of soul and sanity for me. 

As for the girls, they are on cloud 9 with our new kitten. To be honest, I think I am too. His name is Asher, and he is straight from heaven. He is the perfect combination of playful and cuddly. We are in love!

Last weekend we had the best time all together in Sacramento with the Goodmans. I cannot express how much of a blessing their family has been to us on this journey. They joyfully embraced our girls for days (even weeks!) at the drop of a hat and continue to remind us they are available if things get crazy again. They are pure, priceless gold. 

If you have ever felt like you wanted to support us in some way but didn't know how, here is a simple little thing you can do. Chrys has recently designed a beautiful website for their plumbing business, but their listing is so many pages from the top that they get pretty much zero traffic and so business is slow. I try to google search them from each of our devices as often as possible to try to help, but what they need is traffic from many different sources. Would you mind doing a quick search for "plumbing Folsom" (or any of the keyword combinations given below) and scroll until you find goodmanforthejob.com and click on it? It only takes a minute, but it would really mean the world to me if we could help to get their website bumped up to get more traffic (and business) for our dear friends who have sacrificed so much for us. Below are some links to click on directly. If you have time to click one or more of the links and also do a search using those keywords and click on their website, that would be wonderful. Even better, if you live in the Sacramento area and are due for any plumbing or water heater/purification services, check out their website and give Papa Jacob a ring : )

Like them on Facebook!  www.facebook.com/GoodmanPlumbing

Links to click:

Goodman Plumbing, providing professional plumbing services,

water heater repair & installation  (including tankless water heaters), water filtration & purification, and more!

Search for their website, goodmanforthejob.com, using any of these keywords: 

plumbing folsom, plumbers folsom ca, water heater replacement folsom, plumbing roseville ca, plumbers roseville ca, water heater replacement roseville ca, plumbing el dorado hills, plumbers el dorado hills, water heater replacement el dorado hills, plumbing orangevale, plumbers orangevale, water heater replacement orangevale

And by the way, Chrys is also an amazing henna artist. Look at our beautiful feet! 

Chemo

Dear blog,

I really don't like taking chemo.  I started a new round this week.

yuck.

-Ian

Ps. I love my life.  I've been drawing.  Here's one of the waiting room at the UCSF clinic where I get my chemo:

This weekend I got to get up to visit friends in sacramento, and play some games and generally forget I have cancer.  It was great!

I got to work some wood in the shop, and I collected a nice bag of wild "Black" (California) walnuts for making walnut ink (for my art).  I'll be doing that in the next week or two.

On Monday I got my chest augmented with silicon implants.  ;)
That came in the form of the white double lumen port you see in the below picture with the two silicon lumens (there's a single lumen port in the picture too, but I didn't get this model).  This is there so that the nurses can get an IV started easily, but it's subcutaneous so I can go in the water, unlike the line I have had in my arm for the last months.

 I also got to go for a hike with Asha on Monday:

Birthday plans & future plans

Tomorrow (Friday) is Ian's birthday, and we have some super exciting news. We will be bringing home Asha's birthday kitten, a pet she's been praying for and begging for many years. She picked him out a couple weeks ago, but he had to be 2 months old before leaving his mama. Tomorrow is the big day he comes home to be part of our family, and it should add some extra birthday sparkle to Ian's day as well. Here is a picture of our adorable future housemate:

As for future plans, it looks like a minimum of 6 - 12 months of treatment. Possibly only 5 more rounds to go if there is no more cancer found in his next biopsy, but his doctor really feels like a year would be best. Since the leukemia was undetectable last time yet still returned two years later, he may also need to do some maintenance treatment for the rest of his life. 

Thankfully, the chemo he is doing is on the lower end of toxicity. Our first round outpatient went super smooth, except for Fiona's sickness and the stress of maneuvering in-house quarantine. He had very little nausea and even the neutropenia was mild, though it is still lingering.  He has even been able to pursue art during the treatment. Here's a beautiful drawing he made for me the other day:

Ian is actually a quite gifted artist, but he hasn't pursued the arts much at all since taking the computer engineering route in college.  Now with months of chemo ahead, he has the time (and so far, the energy and inspiration) to pursue these interests. This makes me very, very happy :)  Another positive note is that he can get the treatment at a local hospital so we don't have to commute (or move) to San Francisco. All of these things make the mountain of chemo ahead feel less treacherous. 

We are still processing what all this means for our family and how to make it as healthy as possible for all of us. The girls need social interaction, but it seems like every family with kids we know in the area has had some illness that keeps us from being able to get together. I'm praying our new furry friend will be good therapy for the girls and not too much extra stress. It does complicate our ability to road trip between rounds of treatment. I'm also allergic to cats, but this is a Siberian hypoallergenic kitten. I had no reactions when we met and played with him a couple weeks ago, and I've spent over an hour at a Siberian breeder's home filled with cats and had no allergies. We have a three day trial period and I'm going to sleep in the same room with him to see if I have any reactions. Hopefully not!

I'm thankful to say my energy has improved by leaps and bounds since my last post. I'm convinced your prayers have made the difference. Now if you would please pray for my stress level, I'd really appreciate it. Fiona has had all kinds of mystery aches and pains and mouth sores this past week, and I was convinced on Monday she had hand, foot & mouth disease. The pediatrician gave her a clean bill of health, however, so it looks like that storm has passed. I'm still feeling tremors of stress though, like aftershocks from a giant stress earthquake. I carry so much of the weight of things here in our home, it can feel way too much sometimes. We've really let go of worrying about tomorrow, but these days I feel like the troubles of the day are so, so tempting to freak out about. And stress just kills my ability to connect and enjoy this time with Ian and the girls.  I need supernatural grace to walk in relaxed trust moment by moment, to let Jesus carry these daily burdens and stresses. I feel like I'm in serious training on so many levels. 

Well, that is the Brown family update for today. Thank you for following our long journey and praying and caring for us through all of these ups and downs. It means so much to us ❤️